


Intro to Outdated Telecommunications

by emily_multikeane



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:49:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27767020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emily_multikeane/pseuds/emily_multikeane
Summary: Annie and Abed are leaving for opposite ends of the country and worry that they're friendship won't survive it. Post-season 6 Finale.
Relationships: Annie Edison/Abed Nadir
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21





	Intro to Outdated Telecommunications

The airport was unusually quiet. It made Annie feel just that little bit more uncomfortable. She had been expecting some form of pathetic phallacy where the chaos of her surroundings might reflect some of the inner turmoil she was feeling about moving across the country and leaving all her friends. Of course life at Greendale had gotten her pretty used to the feeling of being disappointed with reality. Another problem with the slow night was that security had all the time in the world to harass her best friend. Annie waited impatiently on the other side of the barriers for the sweaty security guy to be done interrogating Abed on his entire backstory. Finally, he was waved through and allowed to collect his bag. Annie frowned at him in sympathy but Abed simply shrugged. Of course he was used to this ridiculous stereotyping but she was relieved he had handled it so well given that he was no doubt already stressed about leaving.  
After collecting their belongings they decided to sit down at one of the cafes. They had plenty of time before their flights due to Annie's need to arrive at least two hours early for her flight.  
"Are you ok?" asked Abed, looking at her over the mountain of cream he'd gotten on top of his Frappuccino.  
Annie wrings her hands. "Not really. I mean, I'm so excited you know? Working with the FBI? This is amazing, this is what I want! But...the last time we left Greendale felt so awful, and this time we won't even be living together!" She feels tears at the backs of her eyes and tries smiling to push them down, "What am I gonna do without you Abed?"  
She means it rhetorically but of course Abed already has an answer ready for her.  
"Live a normal, believable, non-spectacular, impressive, happy life".  
Annie snorted, "I'd prefer a life with you". Annie blushes, hearing how that sounded, "I mean, I'd rather a life with you in it. I mean you're still going to be in my life of course, it's just we'll be far away from each other and we'll still talk all the time but it won't be the same and I know I-"  
"Annie!" Abed stops her rambling by reaching over to cover both her hands in his large one. She smiles at him, grateful to be stopped. "We're still going to be there for each other".  
"You mean it?"  
"Of course!" Abed takes his hand back. Then he stares off into the middle distance and adds, "At least until you get tired off talking to me and explaining things in your life that I'm no longer involved in and can't relate to".  
"Abed!" He looks up to see the shocked, hurt look on Annie's face.  
"Don't worry that probably won't happen for another few seasons."  
Annie leans forward, determination spreading through her body, "It will never happen Abed! I could never get sick of you, you're my best friend!"  
Abed tilts his head and smiles at her in a resigned sort of way, "Thanks for saying that Annie, but long distant relationships never work out well in the movies. People miss phone calls, texts go unanswered, misunderstandings are a common trope and they're never resolved until the characters come back together and since we have no plans to do that we can only assume or friendship will end badly."  
"Abed," Annie would not let him leave thinking they were ever going to stop being friends, "this isn't a movie. If I don't understand something I'll just ask you and you'll ask me like we always do and if you're worried about not seeing each other again we can sort that right now! Will you please come visit me for thanksgiving?"  
The corners of his mouth turn upwards, "Alright," he holds up a finger, "but what about missing phone calls and texts?"  
Annie sighs, "We'll figure it out, but I definitely won't be able to go more than a few days without talking to you so I don't think you need to worry."  
Abed nods but doesn't look totally convinced by her argument. Not wanting to get further into it in case it fed into her own fears about being apart from her friend Annie opts for distracting him. "Hey we still have more than an hour before my flight do you want to look around the duty free stores?"  
"Ok," he agrees easily.

Walking through duty free Annie takes Abed's hand, tucking her left hand around his arm so she's practically glued to his side. Abed doesn't seem to mind, giving her hand a squeeze and making pop-culture references to things she points out to him.  
They look around one of the more touristy stores and Abed quickly wanders off while Annie checks out the monogrammed beer mugs. Turning around she bursts into giggles when she sees him standing there with one of those dual-can-holding hats, the straws tied under his chin as if it were a bonnet.  
"Abed put that back, we'll get in trouble!"  
"No Annie I think I'm going to buy it. I could put special drink in this side and coffee in this side."  
Annie thinks this is a terrible idea but decides to humour him, "Mmh, I guess it'd be good to have you're hands free, you know, in case you were filming or something?"  
"Exactly!" he smirks pointing finger guns at her.  
Annie shakes her head at him fondly, "Ok, well I'm going to buy a book for my flight, you wanna help pick one out?"  
"No, you go ahead I'm going to check out the cameras in Tech Video."  
"Ok, meet you outside this place in ten?"  
"You got it," he points.

As Annie walks to the newsagents she starts to notice the nerves swirling around in her stomach that killing time with Abed had been distracting her from. She checks her watch, realizing she should really be heading for her gate about now. Not wanting to have to rush her goodbye to Abed, Annie speed walks to the book section and grabs the first one to catch her eye. It looks like some kind of crime thriller and she privately thinks it's apt considering her internship. Fortunately there are only a couple of people waiting in line to pay but to Annie it feels like time is speeding up and her minutes with Abed are slipping away. Her leg starts bouncing as she franticly looks around thinking maybe she should just leave. A shelf of electronics beside the que catches her attention. Annie smiles to herself and quickly grabs two of the same thing. Then the cashier calls her forward.  
When she leaves the store she immediately takes off for their meeting point, anxiously glancing at her watch to see they're going to start boarding her plane in ten minutes. Maybe if she-  
"Annie!"  
Annie whirls around to see Abed coming towards her.  
"I realised you're going to be going to your gate soon so I was waiting for you outside the store, you walked right past m-"  
Annie interrupts him by throwing herself at his chest and tightly wrapping her arms around his waist, touched that he would remember her flight time and be as anxious to say goodbye as she is. She feels Abed's long arms wrap around her shoulders and how he rests his cheek against the top of her head. Annie gives herself a minute, taking a couple deep breaths to ensure she makes it through the next part without crying. She breaths Abed in. His body spray is a mix of sweet and spicy and his clothes smell like their detergent and the scent of their apartment which is familiar but indescribable. The smell of him surrounds her and calms her down until she feels like she can say what she has to. Annie starts to pull back only to feel Abed's arms tighten around her. She doesn't resist him but is a bit startled when she hears his voice right by her ear.  
"Part of me wants to make you miss your flight so you can come to LA with me," he admits. "We'll get a new apartment and everything won't have to change so much".  
Annie doesn't want to upset him by ruining his proposed story line but, "Abed.." she begins.  
"I know it has to though, you have to go to Washington and work for the FBI and you're going to be amazing at it because you're amazing at everything Annie." Annie feels herself welling up. Abed continues, "You're so smart and kind and organised, and you're also stubborn and funny and badass. You're the perfect leading lady and for the last two years you were my favourite thing about Greendale." Annie, fully crying now can only bury her face in his t-shirt. "I'm so happy that we're both striking out on our own together like this - it gives a nice symmetry to the end of our story at Greendale and it's great for our character development," Annie giggles wetly, "-but I'm going to miss you, a lot. Promise you won't forget about me Annie?" he asks, his voice sounds so vulnerable Annie just has to pull back and look him in the eye.  
"Abed, I swear I will never forget you," she says seriously. Then realising she can't leave with both of them dwelling on that she sniffles and tries to lighten the mood a bit. "Anyway, my spinoff is going to need you as a recurring character to keep the audience invested!"  
"Good one Annie," Abed smiles down at her but his warm brown eyes are looking damp. Annie has never seen Abed cry but she knows if she did it would probably break her heart enough to miss her flight.  
She forces herself to take a step back and Abed's arms drop to his side, "I've gotta go," she says guiltily. Suddenly she remembers her purchases from early, "Oh my god I nearly forgot," she reaches into the store bag and pulls out two pagers, "I got these for us!"  
Abed takes the one she offers him looking unsure.  
"In case calling and texting gets difficult we can use these and we can come up with our own codes like," she thinks for a second, "911 means it's an emergency and we need to talk right away!"  
Abed raises an eyebrow at her "A little unoriginal but I guess we can work on them together."  
Annie looks up at him hopefully, "So you think this could work?" she asks replacing her own pager in the bag and preparing to leave.  
Abed smiles, "Yeah, it could be fun, like our own language, or a secret handshake!"  
Annie smiles back at her best friend and threads her hands into the straps of her backpack. "Bye Abed. You call me when you land, ok?"  
"I will," he assures her.  
With nothing left to say Annie turns on her heel and walks away from him. Then checking her watch she squeals and takes off running. Just as she reaches the end of the hall she turns to look back at him. Abed stands exactly where she left him. He waves at her looking very alone among all the other passengers. She suddenly wishes his flight had been the earlier one so she wouldn't feel so much like she's abandoning him. But it isn't and she has to go.

Annie makes it to the gate on time but she's the last person in line to board. She kind of feels like she should apologise to the attendant who checks her ticket but he gives her the same bland smile he gave every other passenger and she thinks he probably doesn't care. Finding her seat, Annie stands on tip-toe to shove her backpack into the overhead. She booked herself a window seat since flying cross-country at night means you get to look out over all the little lit up houses and it's pretty amazing. Right now all she sees out her window is the tarmac and part of another plane. She wonders if Abed is boarding yet or if he's still looking around duty free. Annie frowns as it dawns on her that she'll probably spend a lot of time wondering what Abed is doing now. They did everything together at Greendale.  
She suddenly remembers something and takes her phone out. Annie takes a quick look around for attendants even though they haven't even started taxiing yet and she's technically still allowed to use her phone. She finds Abed's name in her messages.

-I forgot to tell you, you were my favourite thing about Greendale too! <3

The reply comes before she even has a chance to turn the screen off.

-Cool. Cool, cool, cool.

Annie smiles, Thanksgiving can't come soon enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Just finished binging Community for the first time and am a bit obsessed with these two. I'd like to write more and would appreciate feed back and/or beta readers.


End file.
